Visva Vaisnava Raj Sabha
History of the Visva-Vaishnav-Raj-Sabha
The “Visva-Vaishnav-Raj-Sabha” has been revealed to the Material World thrice. About eleven years after the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, The Sada Goswami, The six ever bright stars of VaishnavCommunity, were engaged in the service of the mission of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by living the life of an ideal Vaishnav devotee in Sri BrajMandal. Apart from these six bright stars, Sri LoknathGosvami, Sri BhugarbhaGosvami, Sri Kashishwar Gosvami and many other Vaishnava established Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha under the leadership ofSrilaJivaGosvamipad.SrilaRupaGosvamipad was recognized as the President of Patraraj in this association.
Again for the second time, Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha was re-organised by Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode to carry out more organised and successful preaching of the religion of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This Sabha was organised at 66, Sarkar’s lane, Kansaripara, Calcutta in 1985 (14.3.1292 according to Bengali Calendar).
For the third time, on the auspicious day of the advent of Sri Vishnupriya Devi, Srila Bhakti-siddhantaSarasvatiGoswamiPrabhupad re-established the “Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha” at the Bhakti Vinod Asan, 1 no Ultadingi Jn. Road. It was February 5 of 1919. During the inaugural function, he gave a short speech on the history of the meeting, the summary of which is as follows: –
Lectures of Srila Prabhupad in Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha
On the day of the advent of Goddess Sri Vishnupriya, many pure devotees gathered at the Sri Bhaktivinode-Asan in Calcutta and re-established Sri Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha. Although this meeting is established forever, it has been revealed to the earth three times. About eleven years after the disappearance of Mahaprabhu, when the Gaudiya Vaishnav world became very weak, six bright stars (Sat Gosvami) were engaged in the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by living the life of an ideal Vaishnav devotee in Sri BrajMandal. Apart from these six bright stars, Sri SriLoknathGosvami, Sri BhugarbhaGosvami, SrilaKashishwarGosvami and many others Gosvamis and Vaishnavas spread the beauty of the Sri Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha. The beauty of this meeting was spread by 64 associates (64 Mahanta) of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Twelve companions (DvadasaGopal) of Lord Nityananda added to the beauty of this meeting. The Nam-Hatta of Sri Nityananda Prabhu is the main trunk of this meeting.
“Sri Chaitanyadev is the saviour-incarnation for the age of Kali. He is the Instructor of His bhajan and the knowledge of relationships (sambandha-jnana). He is the Delineator of devotion which is the means (abhidheya) and He is the Embodiment of Krishna-prem which is the final goal (prayojana). Another name for the devotees of Sri Gaur is ‘Chaitanyadev-charana-anuchara’. Sri Chaitanyadev is Krishnachandra Himself—the King of all the Vaisnavas in the world (Visva-Vaishnav-raja). The gathering of His devotees is the Sri Visva-Vaishnav-raj-sabha; the foremost ministers amongst the members of the society are Sri Rupa Gosvami and his honoured Sri Sanatana Gosvami. Those who consider themselves to be the followers of Sri Rupa are the members of this Sri Visva-Vaishnav-raj-sabha. The leaders amongst them are Srimad Raghunath Das Gosvami and SrimadJivaGosvami. During the period of misfortune for the world’s inhabitants, after Sri Chaitanyadev displayed the play of His disappearance, SrimadJivaPrabhu preached the Sri Bhagavat dharma by the command of Sri SriRupa-Sanatana. The people who were accepted as disciples by Sri Rupa-Sanatana—the leaders of the sabha, later became the directors of the sabha. Sri Jiva Prabhu, upon becoming the director of the sabha, termed the teachings which Sri Rupa had propagated in the sabha as the ‘Bhagavata-Sandarbhas’ or ‘Sat Sandarbhas’. The members of the Sri Visva-Vaishnav-Raj-Sabha know these Sat-Sandarbhas to be the teachings of Sri Rupa-Sanatana and thus engage themselves in Sri Hari-bhajan. The pure and transcendental method of worship which has been given by SrimadRaghunath Das Gosvami (one of the leaders of the Sri Visva-Vaishnav-Raj-Sabha) by bearing the commands of Sri Rupa on his head, is the only thing adorable by the devotees of Sri Gaur. By taking shelter at the pure feet of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunath, Sripad KrishnadasKaviraj Gosvami Prabhu—the king of the family of rasika devotees (those devotees who can comprehend the inner significance), became one of the directors of the Sri Visva-Vaishnav-Raj-Sabha. Again, Sri Narottam Thakur Mathoday—the crest jewel of transcendental devotees, decorated the crown of thisVisva-Vaishnav-raj-sabha in the post of its director. Later, such kings of devotees as Sripad Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur spread their moon-like rays upon the sabha. The darkness of night cannot always predominate over the three worlds which are covered by ignorance, therefore we sometimes behold shining stars in the spiritual firmament which is bathed in the moon-like rays of Sri Gaurchandra.
“In 399 Gaur Era (1885 A.D.), a brilliant star of the universal Vaishnav firmament re-illuminated the Sri Visva-Vaishnav-Raj-Sabha. During that period many people in the great city of Calcutta received light from this sabha. As a result of that light, the sight of the cooling rays of Sri Gaurchandra reflected in loving eyes is nowadays visible in this world. Just as autumnal clouds suddenly spread in the sky and cover the moon’s rays, so materialistic, non-Vaishnavas in the dress of Vaishnavas cause hindrances to that transcendental light in society. Today, it is four years since the servant of the King of universal Vaishnavas and the leader of the followers of Sri Rupa departed from this world, and sometimes his light is becoming covered by mist; seeing this, the group of people sheltered at the feet of the followers of Sri Rupa have become firmly resolved to protect the light of discourses on Hari from the strong gale.
“The transcendental flower of Krishna-Prem that was budded forth by the Acharyas headed by Sri Rupa, Raghunath and Jiva was shown to the world as a blossom by Srimad Bhaktivinod Thakur and after his disappearance, it has begun to fully bloom. The followers of Sri Rupa have protected that beautiful and fragrant flower from the attack of depraved people and have thus given aid to the olfactory function of the bees swarming at Sri Gaur’s feet. In this connection, we request everybody to read the Adi-Lila, ninth chapter of the Sri Chaitanya-Charitamrita composed by the king of rasika devotees about the divine loving activities of the Gardener Sri Chaitanya.”
| Sl. No. | Name of the Group | Devotional Service | |
| 1) | MANAD MANDALI | To award those persons who are doing Services for GOD or devotees. | |
| 2) | SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA PRACHAR MANDALI | ||
| a) | Naam prachar sakha | Spreading the message of GOD under the guidance of Acharya and giving lecture, study, commentary, discussion on the topics of GOD and scriptures from door to door. Also to do the Nagar Sankirtan and other programs for spreading the message of GOD. | |
| b) | Shastra prachar Sakha | To spread the message of scriptures given by Mahaprabhu and six Goswamis under the guidance of Patraraj. Also to publish, discover and do research on many books about this topic. | |
| c) | Shastra siksha sakha | To study devotional scriptures regularly, to teach them to the students by dividing them into groups or classes as per their knowledge. To conduct tests on these topics yearly on important dates such as Shri Mahaprabhu Janmotsav, Sri Bhaktivinoda Abirbhav Utsav. | |
| 3) | JIGGASA MANDALI | To check the character history of a person before including him in service of God. To understand the depth of his spiritual knowledge by conducting exams. | |
| 4) | PASANDA DALAN MANDALI | To protect the devotees or organization who are pure devotees and spreading the knowledge of GOD from any other persons. To protest against such opposing parties with logic, by writing articles in newspapers,books etc. | |
| 5) | UTSAV MANDALI | To do services for organising the birthday ceremony of GOD or Devotees. | |
| 6) | BHAKTANUSTHANAMABALI | To find or discover extinct sites of spirituality,to build new temples and to maintain already built temples under the guidance of an Acharya. | |
Purpose of Visva Vaishnav Raj Sabha
- Establishing Maths in different parts of India to (a) inspire “Brahmacharya” or the realization of their true self resulting in the control and proper use of the inner and outer senses of the young generation of the country-the sad but neglected want of which has been pumping out their vitality and turning them into scare-crows (b) propagate and develop “Atma dharma” (virtue of the soul) or pure devotion to the Supreme God which will dust off the temporary and changeable coatings of rank and color and bring about the natural, permanent and universal brotherhood of man.
- Publishing the costly and voluminous Shastric works viz. Srimad-Bhagavatam”, “Vedanta Kalpadruma”, Sat Sandarva”, “VaishnabManjusa”, Bhakti RasamritaSindhu”, “Baladeva Gita,” “Sri-ChaitanyaCharitamrita” etc with such Sanskrit and Bengali notes and at such a price that people of ordinary means and merit may possess them.
- Organizing, conducting and managing periodicals such as the “Gaudiya”(a weekly) and the “Sajjan Toshini” (a monthly) for the propagation of the cult of true devotion.
